secure

• secuer (obsolete)

Borrowed from Latin securus (“of persons, free from care, quiet, easy; in a bad sense, careless, reckless; of things, tranquil, also free from danger, safe, secure”), from se- (“without”) + cura (“care”); see cure. Doublet of sure and the now obsolete or dialectal sicker (“certain, safe”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səˈkjʊə(ɹ)/, /səˈkjɔː(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /səˈkjʊɹ/, /səˈkjɝ/, /səˈkjɔɹ/

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• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: se‧cure

secure (comparative securer or more secure, superlative securest or most secure)

1. Free from attack or danger; protected.
2. Free from the danger of theft; safe.
3. Free from the risk of eavesdropping, interception or discovery; secret.
4. Free from anxiety or doubt; unafraid.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes.

5. Firm and not likely to fail; stable.
6. Free from the risk of financial loss; reliable.
7. Confident in opinion; not entertaining, or not having reason to entertain, doubt; certain; sure; commonly used with of.

   secure of a welcome

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Confidence then bore thee on, secure / Either to meet no danger, or to find / Matter of glorious trial.

8. Overconfident; incautious; careless.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Macaulay to this entry?)

• insecure

• securely

• security

secure (third-person singular simple present secures, present participle securing, simple past and past participle secured)

1. To make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     I spread a cloud before the victor's sight, / Sustained the vanquished, and secured his flight.

2. To put beyond hazard of losing or of not receiving; to make certain; to assure; frequently with against or from, or formerly with of.

   to secure a creditor against loss; to secure a debt by a mortgage

   • (Can we date this quote?) T. Dick

     It secures its possessor of eternal happiness.

3. To make fast; to close or confine effectually; to render incapable of getting loose or escaping.

   to secure a prisoner; to secure a door, or the hatches of a ship

4. To get possession of; to make oneself secure of; to acquire certainly.

   to secure an estate

   • 2014, Jamie Jackson, "Ángel di María says Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real", The Guardian, 26 August 2014:

     With the Argentinian secured United will step up their attempt to sign a midfielder and, possibly, a defender in the closing days of the transfer window. Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, Milan’s Nigel de Jong and Ajax’s Daley Blind, who is also a left-sided defensive player, are potential targets.

   • 1911, Flight, page 766:

     [Captain] was able to secure some good photographs of the fortress.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.

• securement

• secure in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• secure in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Creuse, Rescue, cereus, ceruse, cursee, recuse, rescue, secuer

secure

1. Feminine plural form of securo

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /seˈkuː.re/, [sɛˈkuː.rɛ]

secūre

1. ablative singular of secūris

securus +‎ -ē

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /seːˈkuː.reː/

sēcūrē (comparative sēcūrius, superlative sēcūrissimē)

1. carelessly
2. fearlessly
3. quietly

• secure in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• secure in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• secure in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

• săcure (archaic)

From Latin secūris, secūrem. Compare Italian scure.

secure f (plural securi)

1. axe, hatchet
2. battle axe, halberd

• topor